We all love football. Smashmouth, slobber knocking football. With that being said....

Have the training routines, weight rooms, nutrition and nutrition supplements that are a standard part of todays atheletic development caused the game we know as football to exceed the ability of the human body to withstand the impacts and collisions?

Old phart that I am....when I played in a rural High School as a 150 pound linebacker, the linemen were generally in the 180-200 pound range and the running backs and receivers were in the 160-190 pound range. At that time in the NFL, linemen were in the 230-250 pound range, with the HUGE ones being 270. Backs and receivers were in the 180-200 pound range.

Today, even in High School...linemen are in the 270-290 pound range and the backs are in the 200-230 pound range...when you get to the NFL the linemen are in the 300-350 pound range with the receivers being in the 200 pound range and the running backs being in the 230-260 pound range.

With all the weight & strength training that is done in atheletics, there are two elements in the body that can't be trained...ligaments & tendons. Ligaments and tendons are the elements that hold joints together and afix muscles to bones...they come in the strength one was born with...PERIOD.

We have been training our athelets bodies to exceed that ability of the ligaments & tendons to hold it all together....especially when view from the standpoint of full speed collisions of the 'supersized' bodies that are moving at enhanced speeds from the strength of the developed muscles.

In all games that we play there is a RISK of injury. Football has passed the risk stage, for injury to the point that among all the players on the team there is a certintity that one or more players WILL be injured during the course of every game played.

If manufactureing companies were to have the injury 'Frequency/Severity' index ratio that NFL teams have....they would never be able to get any form of insurance on their operations.

I love football, however, I do believe it has become a game that has exceeded the capacities of the human body to play it.

I am in agreement with mmi's observation, candidly though, I never considered the improportianate strength ratio of muscle to tendon/ligaments. It seems very sensible to me. One must wonder this, why are the professionally educated physical trainers not making more noise about this, and lowering the costly incidents of rupture, stretching, separation, tearing, etc. that these athletes put themselves on the altar for? Have they numbed their sensibilities for a career paycheck?

I am in awe of the skills and abilities of the football contestants that I watch. I enjoy watching the play, the contest, the strategy, the struggle, the victory.

I loath the business of professional american football. It seems that the all important cash flow of sponsors, stadium ownerships, and team ownerships are what drives the trainers, coaches, players to push to greater feats of harm risking performances. Truth be told here, the ticket buyers are also culpable, in that there is expectation driven into the public's consciousness for just this display.

Many stadium and arena contests remind me of the ancient Roman gatherings of blood-lust entertainment. And who was entertained? The contestants?! Hardly. It was the emporers, their privileged dignatary class, and any of society deemed approved by the same to be in attendance. The contestants were not there by choice, because they were not reimbursed for their "performance".

Positive cash flow and a healthy return on investment is the tacit engine to what could otherwise be a much safer and sensible pastime for families to watch and enjoy, and for the performers/contestants to participate in.

I do truly admire the athletic skills and abilities of highly capable athletes, I do not think that their monetary and benefits compensation should govern their personal decision to be put in harm's way for the modern day emporer for gratuitous reasons.

I agree; I'm not sure what the solution is, short of not playing the games. I'm not sure how people could gather up enough support to "outlaw" football, but it is an interesting debate to have...

cmon, its not like football is played to the death!

I do think the long term health of some football players is compromised and is a concern that should be addressed somehow. These guys do push their bodies beyond their capabilities sometimes, and more so than other sports.

I do think the long term health of some football players is compromised and is a concern that should be addressed somehow. These guys do push their bodies beyond their capabilities sometimes, and more so than other sports.

Football may not be played to the death....however, we are seeing the former NFL players are having shorter life expectancies than the general population and the quality of that life after football is severly comprimized from the after affects of the accumulated injuries.

This concussion business has me worried about the future. Player safety should be the #1 priority, but I have some worries that it'll turn into how soccer is being played.

Austin Collie (spl?) was badly hurt during the Colts-Eagles game, and thankfully it's not as bad as it first appeared. However, the flag was very late. The fear that I have is players will get by a players helmet somewhere on the body, go down (un-hurt) and play dead. They get a 15 yard penalty, the player gets an Oscar, and the game turns into soccer. It's probably not going to happen, but it was a random thought I had today.

This is why when you were a kid you asked mom if it was ok to play the game. It's violent. If you can't handle it, or think that eventually you won't be able to handle it, I believe it's the players responsibility to leave the game. If you can't handle the heat, get out of the kitchen. It's a violent sport and nothing will *bleep* people off more if in 100 years players come out of the locker rooms kissing and hugging each other.

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The reason I talk to myself is that I am the only one whose answers I accept~ George Carlin

To be or not to be is not a question of compromise. Either you be or you don't be ~ Golda Meir

Sometimes good guys gotta do bad things to make the bad guys pay ~ Harvey Specter

I agree with all that has been said bout how the NFL has changed players sizes and amount of concussions what can be done?....make the NFL flag football....well they are going that way with the wimpy QB position

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Me? I'm dishonest, and a dishonest man you can always trust to be dishonest. Honestly. It's the honest ones you want to watch out for, because you can never predict when they're going to do something incredibly... stupid.

Austin Collie (spl?) was badly hurt during the Colts-Eagles game, and thankfully it's not as bad as it first appeared. However, the flag was very late. The fear that I have is players will get by a players helmet somewhere on the body, go down (un-hurt) and play dead. They get a 15 yard penalty, the player gets an Oscar, and the game turns into soccer. It's probably not going to happen, but it was a random thought I had today.

Having watched the Collie tackle, both in real time and slo-mo, it was a good legal tackle of a ball carrier. Not a hit on a defenseless player as was flagged. If this kind of tackle is to be flagged, then we truly have gone into the realm of two hand touch or flag football.

Having watched the Collie tackle, both in real time and slo-mo, it was a good legal tackle of a ball carrier. Not a hit on a defenseless player as was flagged. If this kind of tackle is to be flagged, then we truly have gone into the realm of two hand touch or flag football.

I think they throw the flag on any hit that looks bad. Whether I agree with that approach or not is unimportant. However, I know as a fan I get far more angered by late flags than a flag that might not have been a great call. If they had fined the guy for the hit I'd have had a big problem with it, but by not issuing a fine it was similar to admitting it was a bad call and that it was a legal hit. It clearly was a legal hit, just bad luck. Collie tried to protect himself from getting hit in the chest and he ended up getting hit in the head, none of the players involved did anything wrong. It's just (like you said in the original post) a violent sport that injuries will occur in. Glad Collie's fairly okay, it looked bad when he was laying on the ground...

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ChsChargers09 - Please be aware that there is a significant chance I was being sarcastic in the above comment. Thank you.

It is supposed to be rough. If the players do not like it don't play. If the viewer does not like it do not watch.I like it. I like it when it is a raw and as violent ...but fair and legal; as possible. I approve of not leading with the helmet when tackling just as most of us approve of protecting the kicker and the QB. But i hope they never emasculate FB to the point that is not ...football.

I accept the game for what it is and hope that if goes forward into the future with as little change to the game as possible.

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In his farewell address (September 19, 1796), President George Washington told the nation: "Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle. . . . Virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government."

I think it is CRAZY that a league wants bigger and more powerful players and not want to admit that their greed is leading some young men into a lifetime of physical disorders.

Football wasn't invented to be played with don't touch me rules. But when the rules of the game were invented, human performance, conditioning, physiology, etc were in their infancy, so 300 some odd pound giants were men of myth, no reality.